Auto drivers to drive Smart (fortwo/forfour)?

chinnie

Hi,

I'll be off on holiday in Italy driving around the country but find online that
there will be only smartcars available on-site. As an
auto-transmission driver for 8 years who just started to learn how to
drive manual, I'm not sure if it will be easy to drive smartcars. As
fas as I know there's no worry about the clutch but will there be a
problem with engine being stopped if I shift the gear improperly or
when you start the engine, and parking, etc.? Is there a big difference and
difficulty to be had?

Thanks in advance for all the advice.

xycom1

It's just the same as an automatic car I presume (although I've never driven an auto but I have driven a Smart fortwo). You can have it in fully automatic mode (where it takes an age to shift gear) or manual override, where you just hit the gearlever back and forwards to shift up and down (automatic clutch as you mentioned).

The car shouldn't stall (you can slam your foot on the brake in 6th manual override and the car will shift down to 1st ready to pull away again). But it will roll backwards on hills - not sure if this is the same as an auto as I mentioned I only drive manual but I thought autos were supposed to crawl?